In Terry Pratchett's book, The Truth, he says:
"Words resemble fish in that some specialized ones can survive only in a kind of reef, where their curious shapes and usages are protected from the hurley-burley of the open sea. 'Rumpus' and 'fracas' are found only in certain newspapers (in much the same way that "beverages" are found only in certain menus). They are never used in normal conversation."
In some ways, the language I am learning in my Dutch class is the same. We are learning how to say simple things very slowly in complete sentences, with a sort of exaggerated pronounciation. Every day in class, my classmates and I sit there and have practice conversations that run something like:
(in dutch, obviously)
Me: How ARE you?
Marisa: I am good, and you, how are YOU?
Me: Good!
Me: And all of you? Are you going to Paris tomorrow?
Andrew: NO. All of us are are NOT going to Paris tomorrow.
Me: Ah, and where are of you going to?
Andrew: We are all going to Brussels.
Then, when we are talking about our actual plans for the weekend, we lapse back into English, because, seriously, who talks like that? But in a way, I have gotten used to these conversation even so. I was returning a book to the University of Gent library on Monday, and I carefully constructed a sentence that (I think) would translate to something like, "I have a book to return" that I could say to the librarian as I handed it in. I almost expected him to say something like, "Oh, you have BOOK to return? Ah, HERE is the book! THANK you very MUCH" and I braced myself to try to understand any variation thereof. Of course, because this was the real world, he took it, making a noncommittal grunting sound. I stood there for a moment feeling disappointed, and then I walked away feeling relieved. In the real world, people still communicate mostly in gestures and fragments that are pretty universal, and that is something I feel like I completely understand!
27 March, 2007
21 March, 2007
Ice, by any other name...
...is still really bloody cold.
I am amazed at the multitude of ways ice can fall from the sky. A cold snap has been rolling its way across Northern Europe since Sunday evening, bringing with it regen (rain), sneew (snow), hagel (hail), and plenty of ijs (ice).
By now I am starting to become familiar with snow:
I'm reminded of the Terry Pratchett book "The Last Continent", based loosely on Australia, where the natives don't believe that water can fall from the sky. "Water is heavy, how does it get up there?!" I'd have thought that about so much ice had I not seen it myself!
And of course, there is hail. I have seen the small hail that falls by the bucketfull, which drops from otherwise dry skies. The picture at the right features what I have dubbed "rock salt" hail, which freezes to things as if they are stale cineplex pretzels. It seems to always strike exactly when I get on my bike for the last leg to work.
17 March, 2007
The finer points
I started taking the introductory Dutch class at the University of Gent this last Wednesday. So far we have covered pronunciation, and some basic phrases most of us already knew such as "What is your name?" and "Where do you live?" My classmates hail from all over. Everywhere from Nigeria to Thailand, Canada to Portugal. When we were planning our trip to Belgium it seemed that spending my time with other expats would be silly. Why go all the way to Belgium to send our time with people from home? But it has been a huge comfort to me to talk to other people who live linguistically and culturally isolated. Interestingly, I'm the only one in the class that is there with someone from home. Everyone else is there, rather romantically, for love.
I suggested to one of the girls in class that she will likely be learning Dutch much faster than I, seeing as she can practice it at home with her Belgian boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and laughed. "It causes tension!" I guess he isn't always as...patient as he could be. They too have trouble finding certain foods, and struggle with being unemployed after successful professional lives in other countries. And there is only one other American there, so really I'm NOT spending time with people I could have met back in the States. Instead I get to meet adventurous people from all over the world! Neat!
Our teacher is really funny. She speaks Dutch, English, French, and knows some of the good swear words in Arabic. She has to teach Dutch in English and French at the same time, because not everyone in the class has a language in common. There is one girl there from Spain who doesn't speak either of those, so she tries to throw in a few words in Spanish if she can, although professor Ines admits that she really doesn't know much Spanish. The class takes twice as long because she has to go back and say everything again, but I don't mind because it is fun to try to understand what she says in French. In a very practical way, she is stressing the Flemish dialect pronunciation of Dutch.
In Flemish, I have learned, the "g" sound is very soft. It is almost exactly like an "h", and all of us in the class are struggling to distinguish them. They also differ from Netherlands Dutch with their v's and their w's. In the Netherlands, a "v" at the beginning of a word sounds more like an "f", and a "w" often sounds more like a "v". In Flemish, V's and W's are more like their English counterparts. Of course, when I started learning Dutch, I was learning from a girl in San Diego from the Netherlands, so now I have to unlearn a few things. I am sure that when my Dutch speaking relatives hear my careful Flemish pronunciation they will think, "Gee, her Dutch really isn't that good!" But if I don't learn the local dialect, I never will understand what anyone is saying, so what can you do.
On another subject, I had to go out and buy new shoes this week. When I lived in San Diego I wore sandals or flip flops when ever I wasn't at work. Since I've been here, I've been wearing boots more suited to the cold weather that apparently didn't fit me very well. I never really noticed, because I didn't wear them very often. For the past few months I was noticing my left foot hurting, and some reading online suggested that sometimes your left foot is bigger than your right, if you are right handed...and that my shoes were causing my problem. No problem. I'll just go out and get new shoes! In the land of sexy boots, this could even be fun, right? I looked up what my shoe size would be here in Europe, and went out to remedy the problem.
In the US I am usually a little bit discriminated against, shoe-wise. I have freakishly large size ten feet, which are very wide through the toe box. Most stores don't order a lot of shoes in that size for women, so they quickly sell out of any cute shoes. With fear in my heart and my foot hurting, I walked around to shoe store after shoe store. No matter what shoes I looked at, they never had it in my size. I realized after a few hours that it is because they only stock shoes up to size 41 for women here, and depending on the brand and that type of shoe, I can wear up to a 42. That's also leaving a little bit of room for thick socks, but still, it's supposed to snow on Monday, so it would seem unwise not to leave room for some decent socks! In the end I had to buy a pair of Men's sneakers. Since then, my foot has been feeling a lot better, but it's sort of sad. No sexy European boots for me.
I suggested to one of the girls in class that she will likely be learning Dutch much faster than I, seeing as she can practice it at home with her Belgian boyfriend. She rolled her eyes and laughed. "It causes tension!" I guess he isn't always as...patient as he could be. They too have trouble finding certain foods, and struggle with being unemployed after successful professional lives in other countries. And there is only one other American there, so really I'm NOT spending time with people I could have met back in the States. Instead I get to meet adventurous people from all over the world! Neat!
Our teacher is really funny. She speaks Dutch, English, French, and knows some of the good swear words in Arabic. She has to teach Dutch in English and French at the same time, because not everyone in the class has a language in common. There is one girl there from Spain who doesn't speak either of those, so she tries to throw in a few words in Spanish if she can, although professor Ines admits that she really doesn't know much Spanish. The class takes twice as long because she has to go back and say everything again, but I don't mind because it is fun to try to understand what she says in French. In a very practical way, she is stressing the Flemish dialect pronunciation of Dutch.
In Flemish, I have learned, the "g" sound is very soft. It is almost exactly like an "h", and all of us in the class are struggling to distinguish them. They also differ from Netherlands Dutch with their v's and their w's. In the Netherlands, a "v" at the beginning of a word sounds more like an "f", and a "w" often sounds more like a "v". In Flemish, V's and W's are more like their English counterparts. Of course, when I started learning Dutch, I was learning from a girl in San Diego from the Netherlands, so now I have to unlearn a few things. I am sure that when my Dutch speaking relatives hear my careful Flemish pronunciation they will think, "Gee, her Dutch really isn't that good!" But if I don't learn the local dialect, I never will understand what anyone is saying, so what can you do.
On another subject, I had to go out and buy new shoes this week. When I lived in San Diego I wore sandals or flip flops when ever I wasn't at work. Since I've been here, I've been wearing boots more suited to the cold weather that apparently didn't fit me very well. I never really noticed, because I didn't wear them very often. For the past few months I was noticing my left foot hurting, and some reading online suggested that sometimes your left foot is bigger than your right, if you are right handed...and that my shoes were causing my problem. No problem. I'll just go out and get new shoes! In the land of sexy boots, this could even be fun, right? I looked up what my shoe size would be here in Europe, and went out to remedy the problem.
In the US I am usually a little bit discriminated against, shoe-wise. I have freakishly large size ten feet, which are very wide through the toe box. Most stores don't order a lot of shoes in that size for women, so they quickly sell out of any cute shoes. With fear in my heart and my foot hurting, I walked around to shoe store after shoe store. No matter what shoes I looked at, they never had it in my size. I realized after a few hours that it is because they only stock shoes up to size 41 for women here, and depending on the brand and that type of shoe, I can wear up to a 42. That's also leaving a little bit of room for thick socks, but still, it's supposed to snow on Monday, so it would seem unwise not to leave room for some decent socks! In the end I had to buy a pair of Men's sneakers. Since then, my foot has been feeling a lot better, but it's sort of sad. No sexy European boots for me.
15 March, 2007
In Bruges
It looks like a major motion picture is being filmed now over the hill in Bruges. I fact, the film is calle "In Bruges", and is about some mobsters lying low there. It will star Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. Some people I work with saw them filming about a week ago.
The Flemings are upset that apparently a French speaking actor Jeremy Renier, will be displayed speaking French, which some commentators found upsetting:
"Jeremy Renier is going to be the 'local character'. Jeremy Renier is a french speaking actor who will most likely speak French in this movie. French is NOT the local language in Bruges. I hope someone from the production team will make sure not to make the mistake of having the local characters in this movie speak French."- Nicofavo
This is followed up by numerous assenting comments decrying the fact, and demanding local Flemish be used in the movie. Which is immediately followed by Vlaamse political commentary about Belgian language issues. I do hope they use Flemish in the movie- if they don't, it will be incredibly inaccurate, and since most Americans learn geography from television, it makes it an even worse offense.
At any rate, now I'll keep my eye on this. It will be interesting to see when it comes out, since it allegedly addresses cultural exchanges between the characters and locale. The film info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0780536/
The Flemings are upset that apparently a French speaking actor Jeremy Renier, will be displayed speaking French, which some commentators found upsetting:
"Jeremy Renier is going to be the 'local character'. Jeremy Renier is a french speaking actor who will most likely speak French in this movie. French is NOT the local language in Bruges. I hope someone from the production team will make sure not to make the mistake of having the local characters in this movie speak French."- Nicofavo
This is followed up by numerous assenting comments decrying the fact, and demanding local Flemish be used in the movie. Which is immediately followed by Vlaamse political commentary about Belgian language issues. I do hope they use Flemish in the movie- if they don't, it will be incredibly inaccurate, and since most Americans learn geography from television, it makes it an even worse offense.
At any rate, now I'll keep my eye on this. It will be interesting to see when it comes out, since it allegedly addresses cultural exchanges between the characters and locale. The film info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0780536/
05 March, 2007
A Trip Home
So I just returned from a week back in the states. I flew into San Diego last Saturday, and our again one week later, for some technology and business meetings in the unit headquarters. Despite taking the camera, I managed to take exactly two pictures- both from the plane. One is in the Northeast U.S., flying over a frozen landscape, and another of Antwerp at sunrise. Maybe when I return for two weeks next month I’ll actually be able to see more people and snap more pictures. As it was, I only met a few friends for lunch and dinner, and had dinner with the family a few nights. I guess business comes first though.
I’ll post the pictures as soon as I can get them out of the camera.
It was a very busy week for work, as was the week preceding it, and so shall be the following week. In fact, I’ll be pretty slammed through May 1st as our project elements become due, so posting through April may be a bit sparse. Not necessarily because we’re too busy or lazy to post, we’re just quite sure you don’t want to hear about Dutch indefinite articles, project planning, and trips to the grocery store.
Judi and I are looking at traveling somewhere local in March, since we’re budgeting for a longer trip to Paris in April, and both of our “busy” factors will increase. Judi starts her intensive Dutch classes on March 15th. I’ll be taking the same lessons by proxy, meaning I’ll read her text book and work on the same program without actually taking the class, since I can’t actually be there (the class lasts three hours per day, five days per week). That of course, on top of our graduate classes we’re both taking. Fun!
It was nice to eat some Mexican food again. Real Mexican food. We had tried a “Mexican” place in Gent the week before my business trip, and while it wasn’t exactly “horrible” in any sense of the word, it wasn’t exactly Mexican food either. They did have pinto beans- but they were re-fried baked pinto bean chunks that kind of reminded me of those crusty Japanese mochi ice cream balls. Only bean flavored and not chilled- rather crusty and dry. The rice was bland, as if they made white rice and poured chile powder on it thinking that made it Mexican. The burritos were generic store corn tortillas with corn, lettuce, cheese, and tomatos in it, rather like a vegi pita in a tortilla. It was good, but not a burrito. It’s not Belgium’s fault they suffer from a significant shortage of Mexicans.
So it was nice to have a steaming hot plate of cheese enchiladas, a fish taco, “special” quesadilla, and some real runny beans and proper Mexican rice. Oh, and a bean and cheese burrito dripping with salsa fresca. Now I’m hungry again.
I’ll post the pictures as soon as I can get them out of the camera.
It was a very busy week for work, as was the week preceding it, and so shall be the following week. In fact, I’ll be pretty slammed through May 1st as our project elements become due, so posting through April may be a bit sparse. Not necessarily because we’re too busy or lazy to post, we’re just quite sure you don’t want to hear about Dutch indefinite articles, project planning, and trips to the grocery store.
Judi and I are looking at traveling somewhere local in March, since we’re budgeting for a longer trip to Paris in April, and both of our “busy” factors will increase. Judi starts her intensive Dutch classes on March 15th. I’ll be taking the same lessons by proxy, meaning I’ll read her text book and work on the same program without actually taking the class, since I can’t actually be there (the class lasts three hours per day, five days per week). That of course, on top of our graduate classes we’re both taking. Fun!
It was nice to eat some Mexican food again. Real Mexican food. We had tried a “Mexican” place in Gent the week before my business trip, and while it wasn’t exactly “horrible” in any sense of the word, it wasn’t exactly Mexican food either. They did have pinto beans- but they were re-fried baked pinto bean chunks that kind of reminded me of those crusty Japanese mochi ice cream balls. Only bean flavored and not chilled- rather crusty and dry. The rice was bland, as if they made white rice and poured chile powder on it thinking that made it Mexican. The burritos were generic store corn tortillas with corn, lettuce, cheese, and tomatos in it, rather like a vegi pita in a tortilla. It was good, but not a burrito. It’s not Belgium’s fault they suffer from a significant shortage of Mexicans.
So it was nice to have a steaming hot plate of cheese enchiladas, a fish taco, “special” quesadilla, and some real runny beans and proper Mexican rice. Oh, and a bean and cheese burrito dripping with salsa fresca. Now I’m hungry again.
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